Intravaginal device with wireless sensors of fertility indicators

ABSTRACT

A convenient and highly accurate intravaginal device with wireless sensors for monitoring fertility and sexual health of humans and animals is proposed. Sensors in the intravaginal device measure fertility and sexual health and via wireless transmitter send this information to a terminal on which the information is processed and displayed in convenient form.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority status of the provisional patentapplication 61/269,350 filed on Jun. 24, 2009

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not Applicable

REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to devices for monitoring fertility and sexualhealth of human and animals.

2. Background Information

Cost of fertility and unwanted pregnancy related problems exceed onetrillion of dollars today and continue to rise. Therefore, there is aneed for cheap, safe, convenient and accurate methods to monitorfertility and sexual health.

Fertility kits available today are safe and cheap, but they are notconvenient because they require taking samples of fluids from a humanbody every time to measure a fertility level; also they are not veryaccurate, because they rely not on direct indicators of fertility, buton non-direct indicators, which correlate with direct indicators. Thedegree of correlation depends on a set of other variables such asenvironmental impact, stress, diet, emotional condition, etc., whichmake the measurement of fertility less accurate.

Fertility monitors are more convenient, but they also not accurate forthe same reasons as the fertility kits.

The purpose of the current invention is to suggest a device which allowto monitor fertility and sexual health in safe, cheap, convenient waywith high accuracy.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An intravaginal device which allow to monitor fertility and sexualhealth in safe, cheap, convenient way with high accuracy is proposed.The device consists of a contraceptive barrier such as cervical cap ordiaphragm with wireless sensors of fertility indicators, a control unitwith wireless transmitter and receiver, and a terminal for receiving,processing and displaying information about fertility and sexual healthand controlling the device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1. A structural scheme of the intravaginal device with wirelesssensors

FIG. 2. A structural scheme of a terminal

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to device, which allow to monitorfertility and sexual health in safe, cheap, convenient way with highaccuracy.

FIG. 1 shows simplified scheme of the device, which include acontraceptive barrier such as cervical cap or diaphragm with wirelesssensors of fertility indicators, a control unit with wirelesstransmitter and receiver.

Sensors on the internal side of the contraceptive barrier monitor femalefertility and sexual health by measuring direct and indirect fertilityindicators such as ultrasonic or infrared images of follicle collapsewith egg release, vaginal temperature, physical and chemical propertiesof vaginal fluids, concentration of hormones and enzymes,folliculogenesis and other ovarian functions. Also these sensors monitorconcentration of antibodies and harmful microorganisms for evaluation ofsexual health of the female. Sensors on the external side of thecontraceptive barrier monitor fertility parameters of the male's sperm(motility, count, morphology) and concentration of antibodies andharmful microorganisms for evaluation of sexual health of the male.

The information from the sensors is compressed by the control unit andis sent to the terminal via wireless transmitter.

The control unit is responsible for turning on/off and control of thesensors, receiver and transmitter. For example, the control unit may beprogrammed via the terminal to turn on every morning at 8:00 AM, measurethe fertility indicators, compress this information, send it to theterminal and turn off the device till the next morning. With moderntechnology such cycle can be accomplished in a fraction of a second,therefore the total exposure of female vaginal system to electromagneticradiation can be less than a second per year. As such technology arebecoming better and better this time may be reduced in the future, whichwill make this device very safe with regards to exposure toelectromagnetic radiation.

FIG. 2 shows simplified scheme of the terminal. The terminal receivesinformation from the device via the wireless receiver, processes it bythe processing unit according to a proprietary or known algorithm anddisplays it on the terminal's screen. The terminal may be any portablewireless device such as pc, netbook, notebook, smart phone, mobilephone, ipod, ipad, PDA, etc. The terminal also sends information andinstructions to the control unit of the device via the wirelesstransmitter.

1. A means for wireless monitoring of fertility and sexual health ofhumans and animals comprising from the following parts: (1) a femalecontraceptive barrier; (2) a one or several sensors to measure femalefertility and sexual health, placed on the internal side of saidbarrier; (3) a control unit, which turns on/off the said means,compresses information from the said sensors and sends it via a wirelesstransmitter to a terminal for processing the information and displayingresults; (4) a wireless transmitter, via which the information from thesaid sensors is sent to a terminal for processing the information anddisplaying the results.
 2. A device as in claim 1, where a one orseveral sensors to measure a male fertility and sexual health, areplaced on the external side of said barrier.
 3. A device as in claim 1,where said means has a wireless receiver, via which instructions to thesaid control unit are sent from a terminal.
 4. A device as in claim 1,where one of the said sensors takes ultrasonic images of folliclecollapse with egg release.
 5. A device as in claim 1, where one of thesaid sensors takes infrared images of follicle collapse with eggrelease.
 6. A device as in claim 1, where one of the said sensorsmeasures a vaginal temperature.
 7. A device as in claim 1, where some ofthe said sensors measure physical and chemical properties of vaginalfluids.
 8. A device as in claim 1, where some of the said sensorsmeasure concentration of hormones.
 9. A device as in claim 1, where someof the said sensors measure concentration of enzymes.
 10. A device as inclaim 1, where some of the said sensors measure folliculogenesis andother ovarian functions.
 11. A device as in claim 1, where some of thesaid sensors measure concentration of antibodies.
 12. A device as inclaim 1, where some of the said sensors measure concentration of harmfulmicroorganisms.
 13. A device as in claim 3, where some of the saidsensors measure fertility parameters of the male's sperm (motility,count, morphology).
 14. A device as in claim 1, where some of the saidsensors measure electromagnetic radiation.
 15. A device as in claim 1,where some of the said sensors measure intra-nuclear radiation.
 16. Aterminal for displaying results of fertility and sexual healthassessment based on measurements from the said means, comprising of: (1)a wireless receiver, which receives the information send by the saidmeans, (2) a processing unit, which processes the received information,(3) a display for displaying the results of fertility and sexual healthassessment from said processing unit in convenient form, (4) a controlunit with input device, which programs working cycles of the said means,(5) a wireless transmitter, which sends instructions from the saidcontrol unit of the terminal to the said means.
 17. A terminal as inclaim 16, where all internal blocks/parts are placed physically into aone unit.
 18. A terminal as in claim 16, where all internal blocks/partsare placed physically into several different units.